Explore the Family Name Bank

The meaning of Bank

1. German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German or Middle Low German banc, or Yiddish bank ‘bench, table, counter’, in any of various senses, e.g. a metonymic occupational name for anyone whose work required a bench or counter, for example a butcher, baker, court official, or money changer. The surname of German is also found in Poland and in Czechia. 2. Danish and Swedish: topographic name from bank ‘(sand)bank’ or a habitational name from a farm named with this word. 3. Danish and Swedish: from bank ‘noise’, hence a nickname for a loud or noisy person. Compare Bang. 4. Danish: habitational name from the German placename Bänkau. 5. English: topographic name from Middle English banke (Old Norse banke) ‘bank, hillside’ or a habitational name from any of the many places so called. 6. Irish: adopted for Ó Bruacháin ‘descendant of Bruachán’, a byname apparently meaning ‘large-bellied’. This name has also been Anglicized as Banks, as if from Irish bruach ‘bank’. 7. Dutch: from the personal name Bank, recorded in North Holland province, a vernacular of Bancras, from Pancratius (see Pankratz). 8. Hungarian (Bánk): from a diminutive of Bán (see Ban). Some characteristic forenames: Jewish Mort, Ari, Avraham, Galit, Hyman, Isadore, Mirra, Zvia.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.